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Write Irwin Cotler and tell Him to Free Marc Emery
Pot-TV
(dont read that whole sample letter its just there for u 2 flip thru and get an idea)
Write Irwin Cotler, Postage is free, and tell him to Free Marc Emery and Renovate Canadian Cannabis Laws.
Sample Letter
An Open Letter to Honourable Irwin Cotler
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0H8
Cotler.I@parl.gc.ca
Denise Rudnicki
Director of communications
Denise.Rudnicki@justice.gc.ca
Mylene Dupere Press Secretary
Mylene.Dupere@justice.gc.ca
main phone: 613 992 4621
Dear Minister,
I am writing you to request your immediate intervention in a miscarriage of justice which occurred on August 19, 2004. It is a sad example of how a Canadian law continues to impose serious and substantial harm upon Canadians.
On this day in a Saskatoon courtroom Marc Emery, President of the BC Marijuana Party, was convicted as a drug trafficker and sentenced to three months in jail for simply passing a marijuana cigarette to another person. No one has ever been convicted of trafficking in Canada for passing a joint until Emery's conviction. It's something thousands of Canadians do every day. Are they all drug traffickers too?
This simple act is not trafficking in marijuana, despite what the law says. One can only conclude Mr. Emery is being persecuted for his political activism. While in the Saskatoon Provincial Jail serving this outrageous sentence, his repeated requests for a vegetarian diet have been denied. This is the kind of cruel treatment is the type one would expect in third world dictatorships. In Canada, these types of harsh and extreme sentences cannot be tolerated.
Mr. Emery has dedicated his life to changing our laws for the better through peaceful political activism in the tradition of the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement that preceded him. Mr. Emery is not someone who stood to benefit from passing a marijuana cigarette to anyone, he had no intention on harming anyone, and the person receiving the joint took it willingly. He was arrested following a political speech he gave at the University of Saskatchewan earlier that evening, on reforming and changing our laws and getting young people involved in the political process.
This is not the type of man who should be sitting in jail for three months. His sentence begs the question, why the criminal justice system would spend several thousand dollars to incarcerate a productive, peaceful, otherwise law abiding tax paying citizen. Mr. Cotler is this the kind of justice system you wish to preside over? Such a mean spirited and extraordinary sentence brings the whole administration of justice into disrepute. Surely as someone who has fought hard for human civil rights around the world, you must see the injustice in this.
As you must know a select committee of the Senate unanimously concluded just two years ago that our marijuana laws and their enforcement are harmful to Canadians. As they wrote in their report, "the continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the substance itself ...[and] Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue."
Why is your government allowing precious police and court resources to be wasted when there are so many other real crimes which deserve higher priority? The majority of Canadians agree that police and court resources are best allocated to combating theft, assault, and property crimes as opposed to enforcing our misguided marijuana laws.
Laws are not just for punishment, they are also intended to foster respect for the rule of law. Putting someone in jail for passing a joint and calling it trafficking insults the intelligence of Canadians and undermines respect for the rule of law in this country.
Canadians know our marijuana laws are wrong. Canadians want real progressive change, not acts of political expedience. The most recent Liberal bill to decriminalize marijuana is only a feeble and flawed expression of the desire for real reform. For example, under it Mr. Emery would still face jail time for passing a joint. Canadians want to know Mr. Minister, whether you will do something substantive about Mr. Emery's treatment and the current unjust laws? We hope you'll do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Jody Pressman
Executive Director, NORML Canada
jpressman@normlcanada.org
Pot-TV
(dont read that whole sample letter its just there for u 2 flip thru and get an idea)
Write Irwin Cotler, Postage is free, and tell him to Free Marc Emery and Renovate Canadian Cannabis Laws.
Sample Letter
An Open Letter to Honourable Irwin Cotler
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0H8
Cotler.I@parl.gc.ca
Denise Rudnicki
Director of communications
Denise.Rudnicki@justice.gc.ca
Mylene Dupere Press Secretary
Mylene.Dupere@justice.gc.ca
main phone: 613 992 4621
Dear Minister,
I am writing you to request your immediate intervention in a miscarriage of justice which occurred on August 19, 2004. It is a sad example of how a Canadian law continues to impose serious and substantial harm upon Canadians.
On this day in a Saskatoon courtroom Marc Emery, President of the BC Marijuana Party, was convicted as a drug trafficker and sentenced to three months in jail for simply passing a marijuana cigarette to another person. No one has ever been convicted of trafficking in Canada for passing a joint until Emery's conviction. It's something thousands of Canadians do every day. Are they all drug traffickers too?
This simple act is not trafficking in marijuana, despite what the law says. One can only conclude Mr. Emery is being persecuted for his political activism. While in the Saskatoon Provincial Jail serving this outrageous sentence, his repeated requests for a vegetarian diet have been denied. This is the kind of cruel treatment is the type one would expect in third world dictatorships. In Canada, these types of harsh and extreme sentences cannot be tolerated.
Mr. Emery has dedicated his life to changing our laws for the better through peaceful political activism in the tradition of the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement that preceded him. Mr. Emery is not someone who stood to benefit from passing a marijuana cigarette to anyone, he had no intention on harming anyone, and the person receiving the joint took it willingly. He was arrested following a political speech he gave at the University of Saskatchewan earlier that evening, on reforming and changing our laws and getting young people involved in the political process.
This is not the type of man who should be sitting in jail for three months. His sentence begs the question, why the criminal justice system would spend several thousand dollars to incarcerate a productive, peaceful, otherwise law abiding tax paying citizen. Mr. Cotler is this the kind of justice system you wish to preside over? Such a mean spirited and extraordinary sentence brings the whole administration of justice into disrepute. Surely as someone who has fought hard for human civil rights around the world, you must see the injustice in this.
As you must know a select committee of the Senate unanimously concluded just two years ago that our marijuana laws and their enforcement are harmful to Canadians. As they wrote in their report, "the continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the substance itself ...[and] Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue."
Why is your government allowing precious police and court resources to be wasted when there are so many other real crimes which deserve higher priority? The majority of Canadians agree that police and court resources are best allocated to combating theft, assault, and property crimes as opposed to enforcing our misguided marijuana laws.
Laws are not just for punishment, they are also intended to foster respect for the rule of law. Putting someone in jail for passing a joint and calling it trafficking insults the intelligence of Canadians and undermines respect for the rule of law in this country.
Canadians know our marijuana laws are wrong. Canadians want real progressive change, not acts of political expedience. The most recent Liberal bill to decriminalize marijuana is only a feeble and flawed expression of the desire for real reform. For example, under it Mr. Emery would still face jail time for passing a joint. Canadians want to know Mr. Minister, whether you will do something substantive about Mr. Emery's treatment and the current unjust laws? We hope you'll do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Jody Pressman
Executive Director, NORML Canada
jpressman@normlcanada.org
